IOCL poster war reaches Paradip; BJD lodges FIR on torn posters

Bhubaneswar: The battle to take credit for IOCL’s refinery reached the streets of Paradip on Friday after activists of the ruling BJD and BJP blocked roads in several parts of the port town following a face-off.

Meanwhile, BJD today lodged a police complaint after finding that the party’s posters for the February 7 event have been vandalised in some stretches here.

Sources said followers of the two parties locked horns after one group alleged that they were not allowed by the other to put posters at some specific locations in Paradip. Soon, the war of words turned into a minor clash between the two sides near the entry point of the 15 million-tonne refinery before the police arrived.

Having failed to vent their ire against each other, members of both BJD and BJP staged road blockades at different parts of the town demanding action.

Meanwhile, the battle of attrition between BJD and BJD reached a new low after the latter lodged a police complaint about its damaged posters in the State capital.

“The posters of our party in connection with the event have been damaged massively from Vani Vihar square to Ram Mandir and in the Nandankanan stretch. Some posters near Kalpana Square have also been torn. We have filed two separate FIRs in this matter with the police. We want the police to find out the culprits,” Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) mayor Anant Narayan Jena said.

The BJP, however, washed its hands off the whole affair.

“The party has nothing to do with the programme as it is an official event. The only thing is that since the Prime Minister belongs to the party, it is working hard to welcome the leader in a grand way,” BJP’s Odisha president Basant Panda said.

“I have nothing to say in this matter. It is a democratic country and everybody has his/her right to express feelings. I feel that the media is trying to portray as if there is some dispute between the two parties, which is wrong,” Union minister Jual Oram said.